


Persona 6: The Ideal and the Real

by Morvram (BoxfulOfCrazy)



Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Gen, Inspired by Persona Series, Mythology - Freeform, Persona 6, Persona Series References, Shadows (Persona Series), Social Links | Confidants (Persona Series), Tarot, The Velvet Room (Persona Series), The Velvet Room - Freeform, VR Headsets, Virtual Reality, Wild Card (Persona Series)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:26:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28764024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoxfulOfCrazy/pseuds/Morvram
Summary: It's Persona 6! Not really, obviously, we're not living in the far-future. But imagine what Persona 6 might be... if it were simultaneously a return to form and a significant deviation from the Persona formula. No longer are we dealing with a high school setting and a cast of exclusively teenagers. OK, so here's the pitch:Mina Hamuko has just arrived in Kamakura to take up a new job as assistant manager of a local hotel. However, everything is not as it seems here - the job is not the only reason she left Tokyo, and there are people working in the shadows to achieve goals far beyond the scope of what she can even understand. There is another world within our own world, yet apart from it, and it is through that world that Mina will learn the truth and gain the conviction to not only carry the truth forward but to reckon with what it means to have something worth standing up for.





	Persona 6: The Ideal and the Real

**Author's Note:**

> Introducing our to-be heroes...

The night's last train from Tokyo drove hard along its tracks, throwing up sparks. It passed beneath a bridge linking two small office buildings, one with a cheerful-looking deli storefront at the bottom floor. The night was dark except for the glow from the lighthouse. Each of the buildings cast a dimmer light from its window. A diffuse almost-dusk lay over the area, preventing the city from ever fully entering the night. It wasn’t like the maddening reflected glow of Tokyo’s streets, but neither was it complete darkness. The town, though, was silent and cold and free of nightlife - except for three men, who stood on the bridge, watching out the windows as the train passed below.

"Are you sure, Mr. Barre?" asked one of the men, his grip shaky on the pistol. In his grasp, the weapon might have been an item of comfort. While his trigger discipline was solid, his hands shook nonetheless, and his stance couldn’t match that of his sunglass-wearing companion for poise. "That one is on the train?"

"Yeah," confirmed the man with the sunglasses. "I'm sure of it." His voice was dulcet, smooth, confident. He sounded like somebody who was used to getting what he wanted, and thought so little of it that his attitude couldn't even be described as arrogant. There was too much easy assumption in it for that title. "The woman who threatened my friends in the Tokyo Shoko..." He glanced down at the man in the brown jacket, who stood shorter by a full head.

"You idiots." It was the shorter man who spoke - the one with his hands bound behind his back, though he hardly had the demeanor of a prisoner. A strand of misty smoke floated from the cigarette in his mouth, and his breath shook only a little as he steadied himself from the shock of speaking so brashly to his own captors. "You complete and abject idiots."

"Hey... watch how you speak to Mr. Barre, prisoner! We can kill you at any time!" The young man's hands shook even more now, as he looked over to his master, perhaps seeking a nod of approval? He did not receive it. The taller man, behind his sunglasses, merely shook his head.

"Patience, Mizushima, and restraint. You want to kill an old man? Just wait a few months, it isn't a difficult task." He reached around and with the index and third fingers of his right hand, snatched the cigarette out of the old man's mouth. The prisoner coughed and looked back over his shoulder at Barre, glaring daggers. A couple clouds of smoke burst from his mouth as he bent his back to get a good look at Barre.

"So tell me, Hitsuji-sensei, in what way am I an idiot?" The honorific shook Tanako just a little, and try as he might, he knew it showed. Of course it did. What was he, some being of superhuman will? No. He was just Tanako Hitsuji, a man past his time watching the new order sweep in and claim its rights.

"You're idiots because you believe the same thing every one of your ilk has believed since time immemorial," Tanako said. "You think that this time will be different. You think you're special, and you think that you have access to secrets no one else does. You think you're uniquely strong, uniquely prepared, uniquely organized."

"I think we are uniquely needed, is what I think," Barre replied. "Mizushima. Do it."

Tanako reacted immediately, throwing his weight to the left side and slamming into Mizushima's knee. The young man hardly reacted to the impact, but Tanako didn’t stop moving. He thrashed and managed to scramble to his feet, dashed down the hall toward the south building. "Help!" he shouted into the darkness beyond.

Mizushima raised his pistol.

"Stop," Barre cut in. "Don't shoot him, let him go. Just do what we came here to do. Perform the Aura Reading."

The boy didn't refuse the order - he lowered his gun, stepped back, and knelt down, unslinging his bag from his shoulder. But nonetheless he asked: “Why are we letting him go, Sir?”

"Because it will be more interesting this way, that's why." Barre smiled. "Come on, boy, where's your sense of adventure? That old scholar won't get far before he runs into another human being. And when he does, what will ensue, I wonder? Questioning, no doubt. And then rumors will spread. Oh, it'll be... interesting. And it will keep our enemies on their toes and in fear."

Barre shrugged. "Anyway, we'll know what we need to know in just a few moments. Just do it."

The young man didn't look entirely convinced, but he didn't question Barre this time. "If you say so." He opened up the bag and reached inside. He pulled out what looked like a massive pair of goggles, but in place of lenses was a plastic casing with only a few dips in the surface. He slipped the headset over his face and spoke the phrase: "Alter Tempus, Alter Ego, Alter Locus." His head snapped back for a moment...

Then he sank to his knees, hands clasped and held together on his lap.

"What do you see, boy?" Barre's voice. Gentle, and sweet, and sharp as hell.

"I see a beach," the young man said. "I see the sea, and an endless beach. And... something circling. Shadows on the sand."

"And what do you hear?"

"I hear... the gulls. They're angry. And... music?"

"And what do you feel?"

"The sand beneath my feet. Wait, something's approaching. And..."

The man shouted in pain. Blood welled up from his feet. He began to thrash.

Barre grew agitated and leaned down toward the young man. "Hey!" he shouted. "Hey! Look for the girl. The girl on the train! Can you see her aura?" There was no response, so Barre reached down and grabbed onto Mizushima's shoulders. He shook hard, and the underling swayed in his grip, but didn't respond. Barre reached over and grabbed the side of his soldier's head, and twisted.

There, wrapped around his jaw and at the base of his neck, a cloth gag woven from the stars themselves was stuck between Mizushima's teeth. The headset remained clasped over his face's top half and from it issued a faint whirring sound.

A few moments later, he tore the headset off and began to pant heavily. "Adrastus," he whispered. "Adrastus. Adrastus. Adrastus."

Barre didn't see it, and neither did Tanako from where he hid watching the scene. But Toshiko Mizushima saw and felt the cloth gag slip from his hands and vanish back into the Alter Realm. Just before Toshiko lost consciousness, two final words slipped out his mouth.

"My... Persona..."

* * *

  
  


Mina Hamuko lay across two seats on the top level of the train, staring idly out the window as she drifted at the edges of consciousness. The ocean came into view, with the narrow lighthouse shining bright in the distance. Her view of the beach was momentarily blocked by a quaint little storefront - a deli of some sort - and her view was drawn up, to the bridge between two buildings which her train was now passing under.

Three men were watching the train from inside the glass hallway. Mina supposed there was little enough excitement to go around in a place like this. She couldn’t exactly blame them for train-watching. Maybe soon enough she’d be doing the same, if this place turned out to be as boring as she thought it would.

The train was sparse but not empty - a few others sat in some of the benches in her car. One person Mina could barely discern across the way was nodding his head to the rhythm of some phantom music that must have existed only inside his own mind.

Mina sighed, and found herself drifting back into sleep. She knew she would be awakened soon by the conductor. But just a moment longer...

  
  
  


She awoke to a rumbling noise in the distance and the feeling of being lightly rocked.

Mina Hamuko's eyes snapped open and she found herself staring not at the train ceiling, but at an open sky tinged with orange and green. She felt a shudder run through her core, though she knew not why. The young woman ran her hands along the bench where she lay. It was soft. Velvet, not that plastic-derived covering she was used to from the benches on her train.

She sat up beside the bench, to find herself face to face with a very strange individual.

It was a man in a dapper suit, of indeterminate age, with an inhumanly long nose and bulbous, bloodshot eyes. His appearance at first terrified Mina, but there was something... reassuring about his presence, and she felt her heart rate fall back to normal and her breathing steady. She couldn't stop the confusion from crossing her face though, as she murmured despite herself, "You're a strange man."

He chuckled heartily, and his laugh was velvet like the blue cloth draped all over the yacht on which Mina found herself. "Oh, yes, yes, and you're quite the interesting guest." He smiled and looked sidelong at his companion, a young man with a mop of white hair combed over one eye and a stony demeanor. He’d blended into the background until now, but came to Mina’s notice just as he opened his mouth to speak. The man - barely more than a child, Mina observed - removed his hands from his pockets and gestured at Mina.

"I believe introductions are in order, Sir?" The voice was gruff, but not rough or harsh.

"Oh, oh yes, where are my manners?" The long-nosed man smiled. "I am Igor, and this is the Velvet Room. You, Mina Hamuko, are my latest guest here. This," and he motioned to the young man, "is my associate, Makoto, a fellow walker of the threshold between dreams and waking, between life and death, between reality and the ineffable."

"Between... life and death?" she jumped to her feet. "I'm not dying, am I?"

Igor smiled, somehow sorrowful, yet comforting all the same. "Oh, no, Miss Hamuko. You are not dying. Though you are in grave danger, or will be soon. You have been marked for what some might call,  _ a special purpose _ ." He folded one leg over the other knee, leaned forward, and reached into the depths of his suit. When the gloved hand emerged, it was clutching a deck of blue-backed cards. They depicted a face inside a circle whose border resembled a sunburst. Half of the face was obscured behind a mask, the other half bare to Mina’s sight, its eye unfocused and opalescent, its mouth set in a thin line that brooked no approach. "Would you care for a reading, dear guest?"

"I'd accept that offer, if I were you," Makoto cut in. "You don't want to end up like them, out there." He nodded, his head gesturing behind Mina. She tore her gaze from the cards immediately and turned, looking out to the waters beyond this little vessel.

"Oh, Makoto, must you?" Igor’s voice spoke from outside Mina’s frame of vision. His voice carried a hint of fear, which Mina only began to understand as the scene on shore came into focus. As she came to understand Igor’s reaction, she quickly regretted looking at all.

The yacht on which the three of them rode was not far from shore, and Mina could see individual people moving about on the beach. But what she noticed most of all was the fire. The city was aflame, and the screams were a chorus that, till she looked, had faded into the background roar of the sea. But now that she knew the people were there, she recognized the agonized shouts for what they were.

Gunshots rang out. Bombs exploded. The city burned.

And above it all, a low laugh.

Mina drew in a sharp breath and shuddered. "What the hell am I looking at?" she murmured.

"Oh, that city?" Makoto sat down next to Mina, reached over, and patted her shoulder lightly. "That's your fear."

Igor's chuckle came again from behind Mina. "Indeed it is," he said, his voice suddenly more serious. "This Velvet Room takes the form of its current guest's mind. That the Room appears as such says more about you than it does about the Room itself. You must understand, of course, this is no condemnation. I'm sure you have no great desire for war in your heart. But war does  _ exist _ in your heart."

"What can I do to... make it stop?"

"If I had to guess, that's why the Velvet Room has chosen you as a guest!" Igor smiled. "Now, how about we do that reading next time? It's time for you to wake up, after all." Mina saw the shoreline turn to glass and shatter as the ocean disappeared around her, and the yacht folded into a cocoon of blue fabric around her. Just before the velvet shut around her like a vice, she heard Igor's voice.

"I'll be seeing you soon, Ms. Hamuko. I'm sure you won't disappoint me."

Mina jolted awake as the train jolted to its final stop. The conductor, passing through the halls, glanced down at her. "Oh," said the young woman in the cap. "I'm sorry. They like to let the train jump a little for the final stop. Just to get people awake." Mina shook her head to clear away the fatigue, and sighed.

"It's alright," she muttered, grabbing her bags as she got to her feet.

* * *

  
  


Yagura House was, like its namesake, dug into the side of a rock wall and built like a deep tunnel system. Bright shining lanterns cast dancing shadows against the walls and the floors, but kept the guests bathed always in a comfortable ambient glow. When Mina entered, she looked first for the map on a wall - a stone wall that had not been smoothed, probably to keep the ambiance of the place. It was supposed to look like one of the old tombs this city was known for, apparently. Mina didn't understand the appeal of that. Old buildings were cool, but not fake old buildings that mimicked a place you store  _ corpses. _

When Mina entered the lobby, she found the place even less welcoming than before. It was a low-ceilinged room with only a little space behind the desk and a couple of chairs for a waiting area. In between the two chairs was a short table with a couple of boating magazines and newspapers on it. One of the news articles facing her carried the headline:  **SUSPECTED YAKUZA IMPLICATED IN SERIAL KIDNAPPING CHARGES.** She didn’t need to read any further than that. Mina started to move over to check the magazines, then noticed someone was sitting in one of the chairs.

The woman smiled and waved, showing a gap-toothed grin. Mina's initial reaction to the first person she'd encountered in Yagura House was a wave of revulsion, but she knew enough of this business to hide her response and return the smile. "Oh, hello there," Mina said. "I assume you're one of the guests here?"

"That's correct!" The woman pushed herself up from the chair and hauled up to her feet, half-walking, half-stumbling over to Mina. "Name's Koroda. Kasumi Koroda if you want to get all formal. I've actually been on a long-term rental agreement here for a while, so don't worry about the daily amenities and such for me. I heard the company was sending a new second-in-command round here."

"Uh, yeah." Mina did her best to portray the awkward, but eager worker. "That's me, the second-in-command!"

"Well, let me tell ya." Kasumi began with a wild shake of her head. "The big boss runs a tight ship, but he slips up like anybody else. You gotta make sure you force him into line, ya hear?" Kasumi favored Mina with another grin. "The old man ever needs any telling off, you just come and let me know - room 204! But don't bother me for anything else unless I call you first, kay?"

_ Dear God, she sounds like she's high. _ It was all Mina could do not to let at least a hint of her disgust with this person show on her face, but she managed it. All that customer service training from when she first started at the company, in a big hotel in Tokyo, was really paying off. For as much as she didn't like this woman, that disgust was nothing compared to the anti-pull of the average businessman's sordid personal thoughts left uncensored for the world after too much sake.

"Sure," Mina said, winking to Kasumi. "I think I can manage, but I'll let you know if there are any problems, alright? I hope you're enjoying your time here so far!"

"Oh, yes, absolutely." Kasumi reached into her jacket and pulled out something - a small piece of canvas. "This city has been great for my artistic spirit. Here, just look! I've captured the soul of the fish!"

"The soul of the... fish? That's interesting..." Mina turned the canvas around and...

Hey, that was actually a pretty good painting, if a bit abstract for Mina's tastes. It depicted what was recognizably a fish, except that the fish was swirling around a shape that Mina could only think to describe as "the heart of the ocean." It was almost amorphous, binding marine plantlife in with the natural flows of the tides. It was... genuinely beautiful.

Mina started to hand it back, but Kasumi shook her head. "That's half my rent for the month, girl. Hang it up wherever you think it looks best!"

As Mina started looking around the room, she noted a few other paintings of similar style hung around the room and the surrounding hallways. "So then... these are all yours?"

"Oh, yeah." Kasumi actually looked a bit embarrassed, but she smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "I paint a lot, you see, and your boss here, he likes paintings. But he's too busy to paint, himself, these days, so he pays room and board for me to do it for him!"

"An interesting arrangement..." Mina glanced around. "I wasn't informed about it, but I see no issue there. Your art is beautiful. However, where is Mr. Saito? Akane Saito - that was my new boss, or so I had been told. He should have been here to greet me.”

"Oh, he's out back. Chatting up one of the other guests, I think.” Kasumi shrugged. “I was actually waiting here so I could give him the painting, but it’s convenient you showed up.” She gestured around the room and continued, “He clearly likes the art. Anyway, he'll be back soon enough, don't you worry. Oh, speak of the devil."

At that moment, Akane Saito, a nattily-dressed man whose suit couldn't quite contain him, walked in from the other room. Mina almost took a step back - there was something intimidating about this man's energy, in spite of his warmth - but again, her training enabled her to hold her ground. She snapped to attention and bowed quickly. "Saito-sensei, hello. I'm Mina Hamuko."

"I know who you are," Mr. Saito said with a smile. "Come on, don't be so stiff. This is a welcoming environment for our guests! I'll show you around."

_ Well, good to know he's friendly. _ Mina couldn't fault that, but she knew now there was no more putting off the moment she'd been dreading since she got on that train - the tour. Yes, it was necessary before she could start working, but it meant that she was really  _ here. _ This was really happening.

She should have been happy about it. That was what her parents told her - they were excited that their "little girl" was off to such a prestigious position so early in her career. Only a few years in the hotel business, and she’d made the leap to an assistant of the manager, and of such a fine place. But to Mina, all it meant was leaving the only home she'd ever known, all for a bunch of weirdos on the shore. And the 'Soul of the fish,' apparently.

Well, she could worry about how to make the best of this situation later. For the time being, Mina needed to follow her new boss's instructions and follow him on this little tour.

Over the next hour, Mina got to see the full extent of the tunnels of Yagura House - the building extended underground a few floors, with the rooms located deeper in the cliff face, while above the entrance level were the public facilities of the hotel.

These included a large game room: "We'll get the occasional gambler in town, you know, those types love this place! It's... a little slow right now, but you'll see."

A pool: "Why wouldn't we have a pool! This place is amazing, and the best part is, hardly anybody comes here during the daytime so as staff, we have it all to ourselves!"

A quaint little cafe set up on the roof: "And there's Kuroda! Say hello, Kuroda!" The man behind the counter - Kuroda must have been in his mid thirties, and wore his mid-length hair swept back by the brim of his hat. "Oh, he's a great cook, and of course working here you get free food on the company's dime!"

There was even an underground conference room: "Sometimes business types, sometimes academic types, sometimes just some club that wants to rent the space out for a party or something. We don't judge!"

After all that, they made their way to a door just above the lobby, if Mina's sense of direction served her well. "And this is your room - you'll find the boxes you sent ahead have already been left inside, don't worry about that! Here's your key." He handed Mina a keyring with a piece of rubber bearing the number  _ 001 _ and three keys. "Room key, bathroom key, and cabinet key," he said by way of explanation.

"Thank you, sir," Mina replied, giving a quick bow. Akane - Mr. Saito - returned the gesture and motioned toward the door.

"Feel free to head in for the night - you'll find an orientation packet in there, but feel free to leave off reading it until morning. You need to be well-rested tomorrow, because that's when you start running patrols!"

Mina nodded, tried her key in the door, and stepped inside.  _ That was... surprisingly pleasant, _ she thought, before looking out through the crack in the door again. She stopped the door just before it closed and looked out at Akane, who was walking down the hallway already, singing something under his breath.

She let the door close, turned around, and let out a sigh.

"What a day," she murmured, and quickly closed the gap to look out her window. It was a view of the beach, mostly deserted at this point in the evening. But she could see that little lighthouse - its glow gave her room a little bit of ambient light even without the lamps turned on. She went over to her desk, where the orientation packet sat, and glanced over it briefly. Mostly boilerplate, but she'd give it a better look-over in the morning.

"Might as well get some rest," she said quietly and walked over to activate her door's bolt.

After a shower and a change of clothes, Mina reclined on the bed - it was shockingly soft, much moreso than the bed from that old apartment - and played a game on her phone. It was some silly, popcorn role-playing game about a group of teenage heroes saving the world from some evil deity or other.  _ As if any normal teenagers would have their shit together enough to accomplish that. _ But it was a good distraction from the world, and for now Mina saw no reason to open any of her other boxes.

In time, she grew bored, set the phone aside, and drifted off to sleep...

* * *

  
  


Yoshido Sanada turned away from the door and swung past his desk, glancing at the array of screens. Models still running, and not much else to worry about. He leaned over and tapped out a quick diagnostic call, then stood up again and leaned back against the edge of the desk.

It was getting dark now, out there. Yoshido sighed and walked over to the window. A light breeze came through the gap between pane and frame. He placed his hand up against the screen and closed his eyes a moment, taking a deep breath to steady himself.  _ Focus. Don't lose your mind now. _

He looked down at the sheet of paper folded on his corner table. He'd written it - he must have, by the blocky script - but he couldn't remember having done so. It was a short list with three people's names on it, only one of which he recognized, and only vaguely, in passing.

He put the paper aside, removed his glasses, and set them atop it. The knock on the door had come ten minutes ago. He had barely stirred in the interval, listening and waiting. He'd left his music on, not wanting to alert whoever was there that he was paying attention.

Perhaps it was baseless paranoia, but why would anybody have come to his door? And why with a package? Yoshido didn't want to be bothered.

But enough time had passed, and the person who had dropped it off was gone.

He opened the door and pulled the small box into his room.

Yoshido reached into his pocket as he bent down, pushing the door shut again, and sliced through the tape covering the box. The package was maybe the size of Yoshido's head - and whatever was inside was heavily cushioned by packaging.

There was no one out there moving. No one took notice of his odd behavior. He looked inside the box.

It was a heavily-wrapped VR headset. The box wasn't marked, so Yoshido couldn't tell who had sent this to him, but... this was some pretty advanced tech, not something you just drop on a random person's doorstep without cause. Especially when that person lives in a hotel where they've only been staying for a few months.

He pulled it out of the box and set it on his desk, searching about for a cable and a port.

"Let's open you up and see what you're doing here, huh?" He muttered to himself as he set to work.

*

_ What are these links? It's got a connection built in... to what? _

_ Location data! Okay, maybe this'll tell us something? _

_ No, it's just a... _

_ A seven-dimensional matrix? _

_ What the hell am I looking at? _

_ Only one way to figure this thing out, I guess. _

*

Yoshido didn't see a port of any kind on the device. He set it on the desk and attempted to pull off the front panel to see what was inside - maybe it was one of those with a cell-phone screen inside? But no, pulling on the edges of the device didn't seem to accomplish anything. It was sealed tight.

He raised it to his head and shone a flashlight inside. Indeed, there was a slate-black, flat surface inside the goggles. So it wasn't empty. That was something.

He slipped it over his eyes.

* * *

  
  


Mooro's Record and Eclectic Store had been closed for two hours when the knock came at the door, but Mooro was still within view, leaning back in a chair with legs up on the checkout counter.

"Ugh, what now," The musician swung out of the chair into a standing position and made for the door. "Who's there?"

There was a delivery man standing just outside, holding a small box. "Package for you, Muh... uh..." The man looked confused as Mooro opened the door and reached out an arm. "Sir? Your package?"

"I didn't order any package."

"Right, well, um, it says right here. Mooro Alinar. That wouldn't happen to be you?" The deliveryman shifted his weight from foot to foot, seemingly doing everything he could to avoid eye contact with Mooro.

"That would happen to be me."

"Great! Then, I'm in the right place. I am very pleased to find that out. Here, sir, please."

"Don't call me 'sir,' Mooro muttered, accepting the offered package. "Now can I interest you in buying a record?"

The deliveryman shook his head and bowed hurriedly. "Um, no, sir, I mean, I'm sorry! I don't need anything, thank you very much."

"Alright then, get lost." Mooro gave a grin and shut the door, taking the package back to the store's desk. "I didn't order any damn package."

_ Riiip. _ The tape came off easily enough.

Inside the package, there was

more packaging.

And inside that

Something black and plasticky. One of those newfangled gadgets, looked like. Not a speaker, no. It didn't look like it had anything to do with music. So what was it doing at a music store?"

Mooro shrugged and lifted the device. It wasn't postmarked, it didn't have a manual, but... somebody had sent this strange goggles-apparatus to Mooro Alinar, of all people. Maybe it was worth checking out, even if it was sketchy as hell.

* * *

  
  


"Riki Tatsumi. Please relax, I haven't called you here through any fault of your own."

The principal placed a box on her desk and tapped its front a couple of times. It looked like a package the mail service would deliver, but there was no postmark, no return address. "This arrived at the school today. The delivery man said it was for you."

"For me? What is it?"

"It's a VR headset. We thought it would be worth opening the box, given the mysterious nature of the package. Did you order anything of the sort delivered?"

Riki shook her head. "No. Who's it from?"

The principal shrugged. "No idea at all." She pushed the box over toward Riki. "The delivery man said he didn't know who it came from, either. We asked, and he checked his records for a second time, but there's nothing there. It's like the package was erased from all records after being handed off for delivery."

"That's uh…” Riki found herself leaning back a bit. “That’s kind of worrying, right? Like, somebody obviously sent it to me, and if they don’t want anybody to know who it came from…”

The principal grimaced, but nodded. "My thoughts exactly, Miss Tatsumi. Feel free to take the package if you wish, but please be careful. It could be that this is part of some wide-scale hacking effort, to steal personal information."

"I know somebody who might be able to take a look at it for me! Maybe there's an interesting story behind it."

The principal shrugged. "Maybe so. As I said, though, do be careful." Riki nodded excitedly and took the package. Personally, she thought it might have been a mistake, and if that was so she didn't want to lose out on the free gadget. And if it was something else, she could always just resell the device for funds for the agricultural club. These things were supposed to be really expensive, after all!

"Thank you," Riki said, as she picked the box up off the table and got to her feet. The principal bowed her head and motioned for Riki to leave.

As she walked out the door, she looked down at the package in her hands.  _ Well, now I'll have something interesting to do after school at least. _

* * *

  
  


Tanako was resting in the empty parlor when he heard a thump at the base of his door. He ignored the sound when he first heard it, leaning back in the old rocking chair that used to be Misara-chan's favorite spot to read. Since her passing, he spent much of his evening time there, reading the same old books from his heyday. The noise was curious, but with a glass of wine on his side table, Tanako wasn't inclined to move. Besides, he had barred the door and covered his windows. Whoever it was could, just maybe, take a hint and leave him alone for a little while.

It didn't matter, anyway. Probably just some drunk teenager out causing trouble for the fun of it. Tanako swirled the wine in his cup, took a sip (it tasted bitter, but he could hardly bring himself to care - and besides, the bite was bracing), and looked back down at his book. It was an old novel from the old Russian empire, just before its fall. 

_ Only one matter remained: _ the page said.

_ Shmulik had to be approached in his study, interrupted for a moment in going through his accounts, and abruptly told what had to be done. _

_ -Shmulik, tomorrow we're going to the town downriver. _

The protagonists' flight from a dying empire that had never wanted them to begin with... it struck Tanako now more than before, more than when he had first read the book when his own family came to Japan. Yet now, he didn't feel any longer that reading would help in the slightest. So he set the book aside, sighed, rubbed his temples, and got up to walk to the door.

The candles in Tanako's room flickered and danced in the artificial breeze as he swept past them, his jacket open and buffeting the air around the flames. The flickering light of one of the candles nearest his seat danced, but did not die. One further away was snuffed out entirely. A chance of the currents, Tanako supposed. It was no fault of the candles. They did what they could, stood away from the danger, and were still struck down.

Tanako glanced through the peep-hole. There was no-one out there. He undid the bolt. Bent down, and looked at the glass attachment at the bottom of his door. No feet out there, but he could see what looked like a wooden box - or a tiny sliver of it. Tanako grabbed the doorknob, quickly yanked open the threshold of his home, and reached around. He pulled the box in, and, bending to the side and looking out just long enough to catch a sheepish glance from a passerby, shut the door again.

_ Let them think what they wish. They're right to wonder what the old shut-in is up to, but they won't pry. Too damn polite for that! _

Tanako re-engaged the bolt on his door, lowered the covering on the peep-hole, and checked to make sure his window-fastenings were in place. They were. He went back to Misara-chan's chair, picked up the candlestick from the table behind it. Blowing out the flame, Tanako was briefly engulfed in darkness. By the time his vision adjusted, however, he had already maneuvered to the switch and activated the room's lamps.

He walked through the small kitchen and into his bedroom, where he went straight to the bedside table from his own side. Across the way, the other table remained untouched except by a thin layer of light dust, stirred up only a little by the room's ventilation. Tanako reached into the bedside table's drawer and withdrew a knife. Then walked back into the main room and bent down in front of the box.

As he cut it open, he glanced up nervously, repeatedly, watching the coverings on the windows. No-one came through, no-one knocked down his door, and no-one was there to threaten him with guns.

But what Tanako found inside the box was just as threatening, given what he'd seen earlier, as any gun could be. It was an invitation, one he knew his curiosity couldn't resist, but one which also told him he was in this now, and there was no getting out of it without getting to the bottom of the mystery of  _ just what the hell was Shiro Barre doing? _

Tanako Hitsuji was an old man. He knew he was nearing the end of his life, and he wanted to spend it remembering and reflecting on the things that had made his time on this Earth worth the living.

But the prospect of one last mystery excited him.

He reached into the box and ran his hand along the edge of the headset, until he found the paper.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my fic! This is my first time posting to AO3, so let me know if I've done anything wrong setup-wise. What I'm going for here is something that runs in the same vein as, and has a similar aesthetic to, the actual Persona series, but with a spin on it meant to focus more on the aspects of the series I personally enjoy and less on those I find less interesting. Let me know down below where you think this might be going and where I can improve, or any other feedback you might have! I will be having comment moderation on just because I'm a bit paranoid, but anything that isn't abusive will get approved, and once I'm a bit more comfortable with the site I'll probably turn the setting off.
> 
> At this point I also already have the second chapter written, but I'm holding onto it for now and will try to publish it within the next week or two - maybe I'll have the third chapter ready by then, who knows? This is all new to me.
> 
> Anyway, thank you so much for reading my work! I really appreciate that you've taken the time to get all the way down here, it means a lot.
> 
> Also, a big thanks to those who read and commented on my drafts to help improve this chapter. You know who you are, and you're all awesome.


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